La Mademoiselle
by GrandOldPenguin
Summary: When the zoo temporarily acquires a foreign visitor, Julien helps to bridge the divide—and in more ways than one. First chapter by jackandjill2.
1. The Arrival

**A brief note from the desk of GrandOldPenguin:** _La Mademoiselle_ is a unique story that I have been a part of for an interesting reason: I never intended to write it. The idea for this story was instead conceived in the mind of jackandjill2, who wrote its first chapter before asking if I might be interested in taking a look at the story. Until then, I had never thought I'd be one to work with someone else or their ideas on a fan fiction project. But there's an exception to everything, I suppose.

The chapter that follows below was written by jackandjill2, with nothing more than the most trivial of trivialities on my part. The eight chapters that follow it I wrote as my version of the type of story she had in mind.

In the end, _La Mademoiselle_ was both fun and challenging to work on—some days more fun, some days more challenging—but I enjoyed being able to play around with it. My version will never be the same as if jackandjill2 had written it all herself—perhaps not even close in some regards—but hopefully I've at least done her idea some justice. Thanks for the opportunity, Jill!

—_GrandOldPenguin_

* * *

><p>"And kick! Punch! Flip! Bob and weave! Weave and bob! Jump kick ..."<p>

It was Tuesday, about seven in the morning, at the Central Park Zoo. The penguins were, as they always were, doing their exercise drills before the day began. Skipper was calling out orders, prepping his team for any missions that might occur that day.

"Spin! Double punch! And cease!" he concluded. "Good work this morning, boys. Break until—"

"Uh, Skipper?" Kowalski said, pointing his flipper. "I don't mean to interrupt, but there's a truck heading our way."

Skipper turned. Kowalski was right: there was a dark blue van driving in the direction of their habitat. Emblazoned on its side was the logo of the New York City International Airport.

"And here comes Alice," Private added. The red-headed zookeeper came running up beside the truck, which indeed stopped next to the penguin enclosure.

"What's going on here?" Alice demanded once the driver got out of the van.

"We found this at the airport. We had no idea what to do with it, so Boss told me to bring it to the closest zoo," he replied.

"What? A penguin? In an airport?" Alice said, dumbfounded. She continued, "We ... we can't just take on a new animal willy-nilly, there's paperwork to do, extra food to budget in—"

"Sorry, ma'am, but there's nothing else we can do with it. It was on a one-way airplane from Europe." The driver continued speaking as he unlocked the back and carted out a large wooden box. "The penguin came a very long way, so it's not like it can just hitch a ride back where it came from. Like you said, there's paperwork and animal rights stipulations—heck, we don't even know where it came from, the tag got ripped off the box somehow." By this time, the driver had wheeled the box into the habitat.

"Once again, ma'am, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but there's nothing I can do. I just deliver the boxes—you can take it up with my boss." With that, he restarted the engine and drove back into the street.

"Ugh!" Alice huffed. "The nerve!" She stomped away.

"And, as usual, we're the ones to break them out," Kowalski said, wondering why Alice never let out the animals. Rico choked up a crowbar and was about to open the crate, but Skipper stopped him.

"Hold up, Rico. There could be death a thousand times over in that box, one of our enemies, or a spy ..."

A muffled voice and the sound of flippers knocking on wood came from inside the box. Kowalski put the side of his head up to the box, listening.

"I can't understand what they're saying," he reported, "but I think they want out. The voice is ... female. Definitely female, with some sort of an accent, I think."

"Couldn't we let her out, Skippah?" Private said sweetly. "There's a girl in there, and I'm sure she's hungry and tired—that man said she came all the way from Europe!"

Skipper sighed, relenting. "Fine. Go ahead, Rico—but be ready for anything, men!"

Rico eagerly cracked open the box. Out of it came a gorgeous she-penguin, with sleek feathers and clear blue eyes. The only thing that wasn't quite so beautiful was the annoyed, prissy expression on her face. She huffed self-righteously.

"_Ça vous a pris suffisamment longtemps!_" she said indignantly.

"Pardon?" Skipper said, taken aback.

She giggled, almost patronizing Skipper's lack of understanding. "_Hilarant. Maintenant, où est ma nourriture? Je meurs de faim._"

"Miss, we can't understand what you're saying!" Kowalski said loudly and slowly, as if she was deaf as well as foreign.

"_Excusez-moi?_" she said, confused as well. She froze, suddenly getting something. "_Parlez-vous français?_" she said, terrified of their response.

Understanding that much, all four penguins shook their heads. The girl groaned, then started ranting to herself very, very quickly and the team couldn't understand one thing she said.

"Skipper, I'm ninety-seven percent sure she's speaking French," Kowalski said.

Skipper slapped his head. "You don't say!" he said sarcastically. "I could've sworn it was Mandarin—of course she's speaking French!"

"What do we do?" Private squeaked.

"I know a very limited amount of French," Kowalski said uneasily.

"Then go talk to her!" Skipper said, pushing him.

"Oof!" Kowalski bumped into her, cutting off her rant. He cleared his throat. "Uh ... _excusez-moi, mademoiselle, quel est votre nom?_"

"Emmeline. _Et vous êtes ...?_" she said, a little happier.

"Kowalski. _C'est_ Skipper, Private, _et_ Rico." He stopped and turned back to Skipper. "That's all I've got. Her name is Emmeline, by the way."

"That helps a little," Private said brightly.

"But not enough," Skipper added. "We still don't know where she came from, or why she's really here ..."

The gates to the zoo swung open, and a busload of children ran inside.

"We'll deal with this later," Skipper said.

— § —

That evening ...

This had not been a good day. Skipper and Emmeline, even though they didn't understand a word the other said, already hated each other. She had quite an attitude problem and seemed to think herself better than the boys for some reason. She turned her beak up at the fish Alice brought, until somehow Rico got an idea of what the matter was. He didn't want her to starve or anything, so he tried cutting it up into sushi. At this, she sweetly accepted the fish, saying tenderly, "_Merci, monsieur_," and kissing his cheek, then promptly ignoring him the rest of the day. When she wasn't getting in the way of the boys' routines, she was hogging all the attention by doing some sort of penguin-style ballet thing.

And now, at the end of the day, she sat by herself on the couch, cleaning her feathers. Skipper was appalled at the effect she had on his men: Private was a little intimidated by her and stayed away; Rico was still a little fazed by her sweet kiss; Kowalski, wanting to impress her, was racking his huge brain, trying to remember more French so he could try to talk to her. He had remembered something earlier, but when he had said it, she just laughed in his face. Later, he privately told Skipper, "I'm eighty-seven percent sure I told her, 'I love to eat carrots'—my teacher was a vegetarian ..."

Poor guy, he'd been so embarrassed ... it was sickening how this girl was so self-centered!

And speaking of self-centered ...

"Hello, neighbors!" Julien called from the fishbowl entrance. He, Mort, and Maurice slipped through the opening and into the HQ.

"Ring-tail!" Skipper said exasperatedly. "I've got enough on my mind right now without you—"

"But it's Tuesday, remember?" Maurice said. "We had a deal. We were allowed on Tuesdays to watch Julien's show."

"_Dancing with the Stars_!" Julien said joyously, shaking his booty. "It's rrrr-rumba night!" he added, rolling the _r_.

"Fine!" Skipper yelled. "But you're going to have to make Frenchie over there get off the couch!"

Julien looked over at the couch. "Who's Frenchie?"

"Her name is Emmeline," Kowalski explained. "She doesn't speak a word of English, just French."

"Really?" Julien said excitedly. "I have not been meeting the speakers of French in years!"

He bounded over to her side and knelt on one knee, kissing her flipper like a perfect gentleman. "_Bonjour, mademoiselle_," he said, losing his old accent and switching to a perfect French one. "_Pourriez vous s'il vous plaît aller ailleurs de sorte que mon ami et moi puissions nous asseoir ici?_"

Everyone in the room fell into a stunned silence.

"_Parlez-vous français?_" Emmeline said excitedly.

"You speak French?" Skipper said incredulously.

"_Oui_," Julien said to Emmeline, then turned to Skipper. "Of course!"

"French is an official language of Madagascar," Maurice explained. "Why did you think all of our names have French origins? Julien? Maurice? Mort? I know quite a bit myself, but Mort only knows one sentence: _J'aime les pieds_."

"Which means ...?" Kowalski gingerly asked.

"I love the feet."

Julien had been listening to Emmeline while Maurice was explaining, and now said, "Uh, Emmeline says to tell you that she is from Paris ... she was supposed to be put on a plane to Versailles—wrong plane—and is wondering where she is now." He quietly answered her question, then continued. "She also said that if you are getting in the way of her dancing again, she will be ripping your head off. Her words, not mine." He added the last part after seeing the look on Skipper's face.

Emmeline and Skipper glared at each other. Oh, Skipper was _irked_ by this pompous girl! He would make her pay. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a suitable revenge that would somehow be useful, when the perfect idea popped into his head. Skipper's angry grimace slowly changed into a smooth, conniving smile, and he said coolly: "Ring-tail, tell her that from now on, she is to report to you during the evenings to learn English."

"Okay!" Julien said brightly. He was already halfway done translating before he realized what Skipper had said. "_... de moi_—Say what?"

"That's right," Skipper said. "Finish, please. She'll want to hear what I said."

"This is an outrageousness!" Julien shouted. "Nobody tells the king what to do!"

"Technically," Kowalski piped up, "he didn't order you, he ordered Emmeline. He just, um ..."

"... thought you'd love spending time with such a pretty girl like her. I really think you two would get along well," Skipper finished.

Julien looked back at her. She was rather attractive—you know, for a penguin. And he loved being able to speak his beloved French again; it had always been his best subject, and always would be. Plus, he'd been intrigued by the mention of her _dancing_ ...

"Oh, all right," he allowed. "But Maurice will help, too. And when I say help, I mean, 'do all the boring grammary things.'"

As Julien finished translating, Skipper couldn't help but think, _Maybe it would be better for Maurice to teach her grammar, what with Julien's mangling of our language ..._

Julien finished. Emmeline gasped and shouted at Skipper, "_Je préfère mourir plutôt que d'apprendre votre langue sale et dégoûtante!_"

"What?" Skipper looked at Julien.

"Ha!" he laughed. "I am not getting into that one! Maurice, translate the rude girl's words for me."

"Fine," Maurice sighed. "Skipper, do you want the nice version or her version?"

"Hers," Skipper said in a steely voice.

"She says that she would rather die than learn your filthy, disgusting language."

Kowalski, Private, and even Rico (who didn't speak English that well, obviously) gasped at her, insulted.

Skipper merely chuckled. "Just tell her that English lessons means less time here with me."

Maurice translated. Emmeline's expression softened the tiniest degree, then she said, "_Oui_."

"She'll do it," Maurice said.

Skipper smiled evilly. "I thought she would. Now then, Kowalski, Rico! Dig up a bunk for the _delightful_ lady—she's going to want her rest."

* * *

><p><strong>GrandOldPenguin here again:<strong> Now that you've been properly introduced to Emmeline, you can see where I've taken her and the rest of the story starting with the next chapter.

To assist with the reading of French dialogue, English translations can be found at the very bottom of each chapter. To keep these translations sections short, however, only the first occurrence of a particular line in French will be translated per chapter, and no translation will be added to a section if the prose itself clearly identifies in English what had been spoken.

During the time this story was being actively written and worked on, Google Translate was the primary source used for translating text to and from French. Throughout the publication period of this story from late March until early April 2012, the French was able to then be revised from Google's imperfect usage thanks to the time and effort of one of this story's reviewers, GwiñverArRouz. This first chapter itself was initially published on March 26, 2012, with its French revised on March 29, 2012.

—_GrandOldPenguin_

**Translations:** _Ça vous a pris suffisamment longtemps!_ (Took you long enough!) | _Hilarant. Maintenant, où est ma nourriture? Je meurs de faim._ (Hilarious. Now where is my food? I'm starving.) | _Excusez-moi?_ (Excuse me?) | _Parlez-vous français?_ (Do you speak French?) | _excusez-moi, mademoiselle, quel est votre nom?_ (excuse me, miss, what is your name?) | _Et vous êtes ...?_ (And you are ...?) | _C'est_ (This is) | _et_ (and) | _Merci, monsieur_ (Thank you, mister) | _Bonjour, mademoiselle_ (Hello, miss) | _Pourriez vous s'il vous plaît aller ailleurs de sorte que mon ami et moi puissions nous asseoir ici?_ (Could you please go somewhere else so that my friend and I can sit here?) | _Oui_ (Yes) | _... de moi_ (... from me) | _Je préfère mourir plutôt que d'apprendre votre langue sale et dégoûtante!_ (I would rather die than to learn your dirty, filthy language!)


	2. Heated

"All hands on deck!" Skipper declared the following morning, the start to another day at the penguin HQ. Kowalski, Rico, and Private quickly emerged from their bunks and saluted their leader. Skipper returned their gesture, then frowned.

"Is something troubling you, Skipper?" Private inquired.

"You could say that, soldier," Skipper replied, pointing his flipper toward Emmeline, who was still lying down with her eyes closed in the cot that had been set up for her. "What part of 'All hands on deck' does Frenchie not understand?"

"All of it," Kowalski answered. "She only speaks French, after all."

"Yes, Lieutenant Obvious, but surely she could have extrapolated from the tone of my voice that it was time to rise and shine," Skipper retorted. "I'm sure she's awake and just ignoring me. Kowalski, go compel our rude houseguest that it is time to get up in her native tongue."

Kowalski thought over his limited French for a moment before waddling up to Emmeline and tapping her on the shoulder. "_Bonjour, levez-vous_."

"_Peut-on être plus grossier? Allez-vous en!_"

"Kowalski, I don't know French from French fries, but that didn't sound like a positive response," Skipper called over to him. "Try harder."

Kowalski thought for a moment again. "_S'il vous plaît?_" he added.

Emmeline rolled her eyes and replied reluctantly, "_Je viens_."

Moments later, Emmeline stood up and looked over at Skipper, eyeing him with a bit of contempt. Skipper had half a mind to demand a salute from her, but the language barrier had posed too difficult an obstacle already. "All right, gentlemen ... and lady," he addressed the group, "let's get started on some breakfast, shall we?"

Emmeline didn't understand a word that he said, but she followed Skipper, Kowalski, and Private over to the table regardless. Breakfast was served shortly thereafter when Rico brought down the morning's catch that Alice had left outside for them. Each of the four boys then quickly grabbed a herring from the pile Rico set down and devoured it, but Emmeline just stared at the fish with a dissatisfied look about her face.

"I know it's not matelote, sister, but it'll do," Skipper said as he reached for his second fish while looking at Emmeline. The girl then turned to Rico and made an expression that suggested impatience.

Rico knew right away what Emmeline wanted, and he promptly regurgitated a _Yanagi ba_ knife to cut the herring into sushi-like pieces like he had done the day before. Emmeline then quickly ate her fish before waddling away from the table without a word—or even a repeat kiss for the chef. She just wanted to be off by herself again.

Skipper didn't protest as Emmeline then left the HQ and ascended the ladder up to the platform outside, instead choosing to complete his meal with his crew before beginning to discuss the foreign visitor a little more. "Boys, I really don't think we should trust her any farther than she can fly," he stated. "France is part of Europe, and do you know what else is in Europe?"

"Uncle Nigel," Private responded cheerfully.

"Denmark!" Skipper declared, pounding a flipper against the table. "I wouldn't put it past this 'Emmeline' character to really be a double agent of some sort, or maybe even a triple or quadruple agent selling all kinds of international state secrets to the highest bidder. She probably planted bugs all around the HQ when we were sleeping last night and is outside listening to us right now. _Hi, Emmeline! We're on to you!_ _Your 'wrong plane' story isn't fooling_—"

Kowalski then reached across the table and pulled Skipper's coffee mug out from his flippers. "I think you've had a bit too much, sir."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Skipper replied, coming back to his senses. "She's not a spy, just self-righteous to the point of making Ring-tail look like Mister Rogers. With any luck she'll be out of our feathers soon and back on her way to Versailles."

— § —

Once the penguins were satisfactorily nourished, the four headed outside to begin on the day's training. However, they quickly found that Emmeline had other plans for their workout space.

Skipper smacked a flipper against his head. "Oh, no, not this routine again," he sighed as he and the others found Emmeline engaged in her own little ballet recital once more.

Private observed Emmeline's movements for a moment, following them closely. "You know, Skipper, it's actually a rather nice art form when you think about it," he commented.

A quick smack could then be heard as Skipper's flipper made contact with the young penguin. "No, Private," Skipper chastised. "Painting is an art form. Sculpture is an art form. Rico blowing a hole through the wall with C-4 is an art form. The display that is before us is not an art form. At best, it's a cry for attention; at worst, it's a cry for help."

Needless to say Skipper did not have season tickets to the New York City Ballet. He had also apparently forgotten about the one time he had danced ballet with a pink ribbon himself, or just how many of the moves in the "cute and cuddly" routine had roots in ballet or synchronized swimming. Or maybe he did remember and just wanted to keep this information as classified as possible.

"So, what do we do now, Skipper?" Kowalski then asked. "Should we perhaps train inside this morning instead?"

Skipper rolled his eyes. "And why don't we convert to the euro while we're at it? No, Kowalski, we're not going to cede and appease. We're going to have a fifth participant in our training this morning."

As Skipper then began to waddle away toward Emmeline, Private quickly reached out to hold him back. "Skipper, don't do it!" he spoke up in fear. "You heard what Emmeline told Julien yesterday—she'll rip your head off if you get in the way of her dancing again!"

"An idle threat, Private," Skipper assured him, "nothing to lose our heads over." Skipper then pulled away from Private's restraint and waddled across the platform to the avian ballerina.

Emmeline was executing _fouettés en tournant _as Skipper approached her, not that he had any idea—much less cared—what one was. He then clapped his flippers together to get her attention. "All right, Frenchie, you don't like me and I don't like you," he said as Emmeline, startled a bit by Skipper's sudden presence, placed both feet on the platform and stopped her dancing. "But as long as you're in this habitat, you're going to have to start playing by my rules. You're not going to get any special treatment just because you may be a guest or a girl or because you're just plain spoiled back home. Today, you're training with us."

Emmeline, obviously, could not understand Skipper. But one thing was clear: He had interrupted her ballet—and he would pay.

Suddenly, Emmeline lunged forward and shoved Skipper with her flippers. "_Vous me prenez pour une imbécile?_" She then shook her head. "_Typique des Américains._" She then tried to push Skipper again, but was quickly blocked.

"Hey, hey, what in the name of Napoleon do you think you're doing?" Skipper stated as he held Emmeline back. "Don't you ever lay a flipper on an officer."

"_Vous n'avez aucune classe!_"

"Well, you're one, too!"

Things were quickly becoming heated between Skipper and Emmeline. Kowalski, Rico, and Private looked on from across the platform unsure of how to intervene as shouts in English and French began to become louder and louder.

After about 45 seconds of commotion, there was a sudden yell in French from outside the habitat: "_Hé, les oiseaux, fermez-la un peu!_"

Confused, Skipper and Emmeline both stopped yelling at each other and looked toward the gate in front of the enclosure.

"What was that?" Skipper asked.

"I said, 'Hey, birds, shut up a little!'" Julien responded. "You're giving the royal me a king-size headache!"

Skipper then pointed at Emmeline and glared at her. "Tell it to Little Miss Self-Absorbed over here."

"Emmeline_, vous me donnez_—"

"I didn't mean literally!" Skipper then sighed. "Hey, Ring-tail, are you busy right now?"

"Oh, indeed," the king replied. "I'll be being on my royal stroll until the 9:30, then back to my habitat for a snack, then brunch, then lunch. I've got some royal bouncing I need to do the catching up on starting at 1:15, then some time on the throne and probably kicking Mort off my feet around 2-ish. Then I've got a foot rub, a back rub, a rub of my other foot ..."

"Well, tell your secretary to clear your schedule," Skipper then spoke over him, "because I need you to get Emmeline out of here ASAP. English class starts early today."

Julien shook his head. "I can't be doing that. If I don't spend the whole day being king, who will?"

Skipper sighed. "Don't make me beg, Ring-tail." He then turned to look at Emmeline for a moment and then smiled before turning back to Julien. "Hey, Ring-tail, do you like ballet?"

"You mean the performance dance that began during the 15th and 16th centuries in the Italian Renaissance courts?"

Skipper's eyes widened in amazement. "Yeah."

Julien made a so-so gesture. "Meh. It beats Bavarian polka, but I can't really say I'm big on it. Not enough opportunity for true booty-shaking mayhem."

Skipper sighed once more and then shook his head. "I'm going to do it, Ring-tail, I'm really going to do it. My desperation is so high that I'm going to bring out the dreaded P-word."

"Poultry?"

"_Please_. As in, _please spend the day with Emmeline so we don't have to_."

Julien sighed. "Well, all right. It is a bit un-kingly of me to be changing my royal schedule for you, but your pathetic begging makes up for it. Send the lady out to me."

Skipper then turned to Emmeline and pointed in Julien's direction. She knew right away that it was an opportunity to leave, and she couldn't get away from Skipper fast enough. She quickly jumped into the water and then reemerged by the gate surrounding the habitat in front of Julien.

"_Bonjour_, Emmeline!" he greeted. "_Devinez quoi! Vous allez passer le reste de la journée avec moi, le seul et unique roi Julien! N'est-ce pas formidable?_"

Emmeline looked at Julien puzzledly. All of a sudden, this guy was so full of himself—what had happened to the gentleman she had spoken her language with the night before?

She didn't give Julien a reply as she then followed him toward the lemur habitat, but she couldn't help but wonder what she had gotten herself into.

* * *

><p>Published March 28, 2012; French revised March 29, 2012, with my thanks to GwiñverArRouz.<p>

**Translations:** _Bonjour, levez-vous_ (Good morning, get up) | _Peut-on être plus grossier? Allez-vous en!_ (Can you be more rude? Go away!) | _S'il vous plaît?_ (Please?) | _Je viens_ (I'm coming) | _Vous me prenez pour une imbécile?_ (You take me for a fool?) | _Typique des Américains_ (Typical American) | _Vous n'avez aucune classe!_ (You have no class!) | _vous me donnez_— (you give me—) | _Bonjour_ (Hello) | _Devinez quoi! Vous allez passer le reste de la journée avec moi, le seul et unique roi Julien! N'est-ce pas formidable?_ (Guess what! You will spend the rest of the day with me, the one and only King Julien! Is not that amazing?)


	3. Basking in the Glory

"Hey, King Julien," Maurice greeted as he saw the ring-tailed royal and Emmeline entering into the lemur habitat. "You're back early. I thought you were going to be out on your royal stroll for a while."

"Well, I was, but now I am not," the king replied. "I decided to grant Emmeline the privilege of basking in my glory this morning instead." He then chuckled. "And to think that some people don't believe I care about others' needs and concerns."

"Shame on them, your majesty," Maurice replied. "Anyway, I'm not quite ready with your snack yet; it does take quite a while to cut the crust off a sandwich made on pita bread, after all. In the meantime, what are your plans for Emmeline's basking?"

"Oh, to start with, I am thinking she could join me for a little bit of bouncing and then a little bit of dancing. If she's good, I might even let her rub my feet."

"I've been good!" Mort said with adorable annoyance as he ran over and latched himself onto Julien's right foot.

"Bad Mort! Off!" Julien yelled as he kicked the mouse lemur away. "Away you go!"

"What about teaching her some English?" Maurice suggested. "I'll help out with the grammar later, but you could at least get her started by teaching her a few words. Start with words you know best, like _lemur_, _king_, _throne_, and _crown_."

"Yes, yes, all in due time, Maurice; I'll be teaching her the English this evening. I already have the plans to be teaching her how to count from one to meleven."

"Um, your majesty, if you want to teach Emmeline right, shouldn't you probably teach her using numbers that are, you know, real?"

Julien stuck a hand up to his right ear. "What was that? Did I just hear someone question the king?"

"No, your majesty," Maurice sighed. He then turned and began to walk away. "Well, I should probably get back to work on that sandwich."

"Indeed," the king said. "Oh, and Maurice? Don't forget to cut it diagonally, OK?"

Maurice said nothing as he continued along, now thinking on top of everything else how he was going to make a circular sandwich look like it had been cut diagonally.

A few seconds later, Julien turned to Emmeline to see that she was standing there with her flippers crossed and her right foot tapping impatiently. Not that she had any place better to be, she just hated when she wasn't the center of attention.

"_Oui, je suis toujours là_," she said as she rolled her eyes. "_Je vous remercie de l'avoir remarqué_."

Julien was taken aback a little by Emmeline's remark—"Yes, I'm still here; thank you for noticing"—but he let it slide. After all, he wouldn't want to be kept waiting when there were good times to be had, either.

"_Désolé_," he apologized. "_Mais maintenant on peut s'amuser!_" he continued, telling her that their fun could now begin. He then led her by a flipper over to his bounce house, practically dragging her along.

Emmeline looked questioningly at the green inflatable structure she suddenly found herself in front of. "_Quelle est cette chose?_" she wondered.

"_Seulement la maison gonflable la plus génial au monde!_" Julien exclaimed as he jumped head first into his bouncy, landing on his stomach. He then began to jump up and down inside the structure, with excitement that would rival that of any a six-year-old child. "_Venez me rejoindre!_"

Emmeline just shook her head. She seriously doubted the claim that Julien's inflatable was "the greatest bounce house in the world," and she had no intention of accepting Julien's invitation to join him. "_Non, je ne vous rejoindrez pas! Vous avez l'air d'un imbécile!_"

"_Quoi?_" Julien objected at being described as acting like a fool. "_Est-ce qu'un imbécile ferait ça?_" he remarked defiantly as he started to jump higher and higher and began to do flips in the air.

Unfortunately, his arrogance quickly got the better of him as one giant leap resulted in one giant bounce straight out of the bounce house and right into Emmeline.

"_Oui!_" she yelled as she angrily shoved Julien off of her—indeed a fool would jump like that.

A few feet away, Julien picked himself off the ground from where Emmeline had thrown him and dusted himself off. "Note to self: Never again bounce on an empty stomach," he commented in English before returning to Emmeline. "_Mea culpa_," he said.

Emmeline just rolled her eyes.

"_Quoi qu'il en soit, que diriez-vous de faire quelque chose d'autre?_" Julien continued, suggesting that they move on to doing something else. He then asked her if she would like a snack, and she nodded her head in agreement. "_Bon_," he replied, and he and Emmeline then began to head over to the juice bar.

Maurice was still crafting Julien's sandwich to the king's specifications as Julien and Emmeline walked up to the bar. "Your majesty," Maurice said, assuming Julien was there to complain about the speed of the sandwich preparation, "patience is a virtue."

"No time for that nonsense, Maurice!" Julien said. "The royal me and Emmeline need a snack!"

"Well, you'll have to settle for some fruit for now because I haven't finished your sandwich yet." Maurice then lifted a nearly bowl of bananas onto the bar between Julien and Emmeline. "Here you go, your majesty."

Julien then grabbed the biggest banana out of the bowl, peeled it, and then took a satisfying bite. "Oh, Chiquita, you never disappoint my royal taste buds." He then looked over at Emmeline, who was just staring into the bowl as if she had never seen a banana before.

When she noticed Julien looking at her, Emmeline picked up a banana and took a closer look at it. She then sniffed it before inquiring as to what it was. "_Vous mangez ça? Qu'est-ce que c'est?_"

"_Des bananes, elles sont mûres et délicieuses! Essayez-en une!_"

Emmeline sighed with frustration as she threw the banana back into the bowl. Penguins didn't eat fruit! "_Je mange du poisson!_" she declared. She then shook her head at Julien before abruptly standing up and waddling away from the juice bar. "_Lémurien ignorant!_"

Julien turned around and watched for a moment as Emmeline walked off to the other side of the habitat. He then turned back around and sighed before asking for a drink. "Pineapple juice, Maurice, straight up. On second thought, be making it a double."

"We only have orange juice, your majesty," Maurice replied.

"Yeah, that'll be fine."

Maurice then set Julien's sandwich aside and poured the king the orange juice he had requested.

"Oh, Maurice, why does Emmeline not enjoy being in the company of the glory that is me?" Julien asked as Maurice handed him his juice. He then sobbed for a moment before taking a few long sips of the citrus beverage. "I tried to be showing her a good time, but she didn't even want to bounce with me! Could it be me, Maurice? Has my prime finally done the passing away? Be the honest with me. No need to be sparing my delicate royal feelings."

"There, there, your majesty," Maurice said as he reached across the bar and patted Julien on the shoulder. "Emmeline is still new here. Maybe she's just not ready to have fun yet in the way that we lemurs do—and especially not in the way that you do. And trust me, you haven't passed your prime."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Because my blood pressure is still as high as it ever was," Maurice mumbled to himself.

"What was that?"

"Uh, I mean, let's just say that in being your right-hand man for as long as I have, no one quite knows you as well as I do."

"Then be telling me, Maurice, what do I need to do to make Emmeline stop being so, you know, Emmeline-like?"

Maurice thought for a moment. "Hmm," he said. "Well, we don't know how long Emmeline is going to be here before she is taken back to France. It could be hours or days or weeks. Maybe if she felt a bit more comfortable in her new surroundings she'd be more relaxed and open to your style of entertainment."

Julien then set his drink down as a smile came to his face. "Hey, Maurice, I just had a thought in my brain. I think that if Emmeline felt a bit more comfortable in her new surroundings she'd be more relaxed and open to my style of entertainment."

"You don't say," Maurice said as he rolled his eyes, his thoughts once again receiving no credit.

"I do say, Maurice, and I think it is a fine idea that I just came up with. I shall be helping Emmeline by giving to her the royal tour of my kingdom!"

No longer feeling sorry for himself, Julien then got up from the juice bar and strolled over to where Emmeline had stormed off to. Maurice, meanwhile, went back to work on preparing Julien's sandwich.

"Emmeline, _je viens d'avoir une idée_," Julien said as he walked up to her. "_Voudriez-vous faire le tour de mon royaume?_" he asked, offering her a tour of his kingdom.

"_Royaume?_" Emmeline questioned.

"_Le zoo est mon royaume_," Julien clarified that the zoo was what he meant by "kingdom."

Emmeline just stood there silently for a few moments. She didn't really want to join someone who imagined himself some sort of king on a tour of anything, but what else did she have to do? Julien was pompous and unrefined, but at least he understood her when she spoke. "_Bon, je vais y aller_," she finally said.

"_Magnifique!_" Julien replied. He and Emmeline then began to leave the habitat.

As he looked across the habitat and noticed that Julien and Emmeline were leaving, Maurice called for Julien to stop. "Your majesty, wait! What about your—" But Julien was already too far away to hear him. Maurice then looked down at the sandwich he was holding that by some miracle he had finally completed to Julien's exact specifications. He sighed and then shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said to himself as he picked up half of the sandwich and took a bite out of it, "better not let this go to waste."

— § —

With so many exciting places to go and things to see, Julien couldn't decide what in his kingdom he wanted to show Emmeline first. The benches and their endless supplies of free chewing gum? The zoovenir shop and its shelf of ring-tailed lemur plushies that came in not four but five different sizes? The computer in Alice's office and its spectrum of Internet videos ranging from the cute to the bizarre?

But as Julien stood contemplating this great dilemma, the first thing instead came to them. "Good morning!" Marlene greeted as she jumped over the wall of her habitat. "I thought I saw a new penguin in the penguin habitat earlier. I was just on my way over to say hello, and here you are in front of me!" Marlene then offered her paw for Emmeline to shake as she introduced herself. "Welcome to the zoo. I'm Marlene. What's your name?"

But Emmeline just stood there silently, looking straight ahead as if Marlene wasn't even there. After a moment, she turned to Julien and rolled her eyes.

"Her name is Emmeline," Julien responded for the penguin. "She _ne parle que français_."

"Uh-huh," Marlene responded slowly as she nodded her head equally as slow, trying to make sense of what Julien had said. "And just what exactly does that mean in _words_?"

"She only speaks French," Julien replied. "I also be speaking the language. I'm a king of many talents, you see."

"Well, I don't speak any French, obviously," Marlene replied. "I did pick up a little bit of Russian from the neighbors at my old aquarium, though. But don't ever tell Skipper. He'd probably think that there was some sort of conspiracy behind it. And in front of it, next to it, and everywhere in between."

"Don't be the worrying warthog, Marlene," Julien replied as he tapped on his head, "I will be keeping your secret safe inside of my thinking parts. Right next to the secret about Maurice starting to go bald. I mean—oops."

"Anyway," Marlene continued, trying to move the conversation forward, "where did Emmeline transfer from? I mean, somewhere where she'd have spoken French, obviously, but you know what I mean."

Julien then explained Emmeline's situation.

"Ah," Marlene said. "Well, tell her that I hope she enjoys her stay here until she can get back to France. And that she's welcome to come by for a visit anytime. I'd love to hear about the culture."

Julien then translated the message.

Emmeline rolled her eyes. "_Je vais passer_," she said. "_Vous parlez trop_."

Julien struggled to reply to Marlene. "Uh ..."

"Well, what did she say?"

"She said she'll pass because you be talking too much."

Marlene was utterly shocked. "Wow, that was extremely rude. I was only trying to be nice." She then sighed and threw her paws up before turning around and climbing back over the wall of her habitat.

Julien watched as Marlene then disappeared into the cave inside her habitat. Even though he was a king, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the commoner otter.

Maybe a tour of the zoo wasn't what Emmeline needed after all. But what was?

* * *

><p>Published March 30, 2012; French revised April 1, 2012, with my thanks to GwiñverArRouz.<p>

**Translations:** _Désolé_ (Sorry) | _Mais maintenant on peut s'amuser!_ (But now the fun can begin!) | _Quelle est cette chose?_ (What is this thing?) | _Seulement la maison gonflable la plus génial au monde!_ (Only the greatest bounce house in the world!) | _Venez me rejoindre!_ (Come join me!) | _Non, je ne vous rejoindrez pas! Vous avez l'air d'un imbécile!_ (No, I will not join you! You look like a fool!) | _Quoi?_ (What?) | _Est-ce qu'un imbécile ferait ça?_ (Would a fool do this?) | _Oui!_ (Yes!) | _Mea culpa _(My mistake [Latin phrase]) | _Quoi qu'il en soit, que diriez-vous de faire quelque chose d'autre?_ (Anyway, how about we do something else?) | _Bon_ (Good) | _Vous mangez ça? Qu'est-ce que c'est?_ (You eat these? What are they?) | _Des bananes, elles sont mûres et délicieuses! Essayez-en une!_ (Bananas, ripe and delicious! Try one!) | _Je mange du poisson!_ (I eat fish!) | _Lémurien ignorant!_ (Ignorant lemur!) | _je viens d'avoir une idée _(I just had an idea) | _Voudriez-vous faire le tour de mon royaume?_ (Would you like a tour of my kingdom?) | _Royaume?_ (Kingdom?) | _Le zoo est mon royaume_ (The zoo is my kingdom) | _Bon, je vais y aller_ (Well, I'll go) | _Magnifique!_ (Wonderful!) | _ne parle que français_ (speaks only French) | _Je vais passer_ (I'll pass) | _Vous parlez trop_ (You talk too much)


	4. The Ballroom Blitz

"Enough yak!" Bing declared. "She's onea you birds and that makes it yous' problems!"

"Capiche?" Bada added for emphasis. He then slammed down the bowl that covered the entrance to the penguins' HQ and then left the penguin habitat with Bing, confident that he and Bing had gotten their point across.

It was Tuesday, about 1900 hours, at the Central Park Zoo. It was also two weeks since Emmeline had been brought to the penguin habitat, and Emmeline's welcome—if she ever had one—had long worn thin with the zoo population. The gorillas' complaints—and threats—were just the latest to be registered with Emmeline's frustrated roommates.

"So, Kowalski," Skipper then said, "French-speaking lemurs aside, do we now have a full-card bingo?"

"Not quite," Kowalski replied, looking through his notes. "Emmeline still needs to tick off Leonard before she will have been rude and inconsiderate to everyone in the zoo."

"A bit surprising he's last, considering he's the most anti-penguin guy around," Private commented.

Skipper sighed and then shook his head. "Boys, I've had it up to _here_ with that Emmeline," he declared, holding a flipper above his head to emphasize his frustration. "Actually," he continued, looking to Kowalski, "Kowalski, would you mind giving me a boost, please?"

Kowalski wasn't sure why, but he complied, lifting his leader up off the floor a little.

"Higher!" Skipper ordered.

Kowalski lifted Skipper a little higher into the air.

"Higher still! As high as you can go!"

Kowalski lifted Skipper up until Skipper's feet were above his own head.

"Thanks, Kowalski," Skipper said. "I've had it up to _here_ with Emmeline, actually," he continued, holding his flipper above his head once again. "Even those of us with saint-like patience have our breaking points. We've got to get Frenchie out of here before I reach mine."

_Before?_ the other three penguins couldn't help but wonder to themselves, though they, too, had had about enough of Emmeline.

"What did you have in mind?" Kowalski then asked. "And can I please put you down now, sir?"

Skipper gestured downward with his flippers and Kowalski began to lower him. "Well, can't we just dump her in Hoboken or something?" Skipper said.

"Getting rid of our troubles to the Hoboken Zoo is becoming a little clichéd, Skipper," Kowalski replied.

"Who said anything about the zoo? I meant literally _dump_ Emmeline in the middle of Hoboken and let her fend for herself. You know, give her a little one-on-one time with the dregs of society and see if it'll turn her attitude around."

"I think that might be just a tad harsh, Skipper, even for Emmeline," Private stated.

Skipper sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot. All right, boys, Plan B."

— § —

Being evening once again, Emmeline was off at the lemur habitat being taught the ins and outs of the English language by Julien and Maurice. Or at least that's what Skipper assumed she was doing.

Although Skipper's orders were for her to learn English from the time the zoo closed until 2100, Emmeline so hated the lessons that she usually spent the first two hours or so wandering about the zoo before reporting in with the lemurs. She knew she couldn't avoid the lessons entirely, however, so she'd usually just fake an apology to Julien for being late, and he never questioned her. Perhaps the only upside of being forced to learn English was that she could make herself seem convincing and genuine.

Not wanting to push her luck, however, Emmeline began to head over to the lemur habitat after noticing on the clock by the zoo entrance that it was 7:06. As she neared the enclosure, she suddenly heard loud music begin to play from somewhere within the habitat. The beat was unfamiliar to her, and although she had learned a fair amount of English, the only portion of the lyrics she could clearly make out featured some man commanding others not to touch something for whatever reason.

As Emmeline entered the habitat, she was shocked and appalled to find Julien shaking his rear end about in time with the music. As she dared to waddle closer to him, the party animal suddenly dropped to the ground and started to breakdance in front of his bounce house. On either side of him, Maurice and Mort struggled to keep pace as they danced on their own two feet.

"U can't touch this!" Julien sang as he spun his legs around in a circle. "Break it down!" He then continued doing this dance for several more seconds before shouting, "Stop! Julien time!"

"What are you doing?" Emmeline asked when Julien finally caught her glance.

"Oh, Emmeline!" the king responded, stopping his dance moves and standing up. "You've come at a great time. The dance party has just begun to begin!"

"Dance party?"

"Yes, dance party!" Julien then grabbed Emmeline by the flippers and spun her around in a circle. "There is only being so much English that can be taught without feeling mad rhymes pulsing through your body. Come on, Emmeline! U can't touch this!"

Emmeline quickly shoved Julien away and pointed at herself. "I think you've got the song wrong. _Vous ne pouvez pas me toucher!_" Angry, she then went to Julien's boom box and shut it off.

"Hey!" Julien objected as he stomped his foot. "You have committed the homicide on my music and made my booty sad. There will be consequences!" He then turned to Maurice. "Maurice, take Emmeline into custody. Be charging her with, oh, I don't know, surprise me."

Emmeline just shook her head. "Can we just get on with the filthy language lesson already? That's why I'm here after all."

"Very well," Julien sighed. He then chuckled quietly.

"What was that for?" Emmeline wondered.

"Oh, nothing," the king replied. "It's no big deal that you find my mad dancing skills too intimidating to be competing with. I don't be taking it as an insult, I find it quite the compliment."

"What?" Emmeline objected. "Like that display could even be called dancing! Where I come from, there's nothing artistic about shaking your derrière!"

"Well, welcome to New York!"

Emmeline huffed and turned away from Julien. "Well, I know when I've been insulted."

"So you do not be accepting my challenge?" Julien asked.

Emmeline quickly turned back around. "What challenge?"

Sensing trouble, Maurice pulled Julien aside. "Your majesty, whatever you're planning, don't do it. If Emmeline doesn't want to dance with us willingly, don't force her. You remember what happened to Darla when she tried to teach Emmeline square dancing, don't you?"

"How's she doing, anyway?" Julien wondered. "Has she regained the consciousness yet?"

"I'll look into it. In the meantime, let's get Emmeline started with learning some more English. I think we should go over reflexive pronoun usage today."

Julien nodded, then turned back to Emmeline. "I challenge you to a dance-off!"

Maurice smacked his forehead. "Your majesty, what did I just tell you?"

"The nuns can wait, Maurice! My honor is at stake!"

"They're not nuns, your majesty, they're—"

"Whatever!"

"You're gonna regret it," Maurice sighed. "Besides, with your and Emmeline's personalities, how are the two of you even going to determine who wins a dance-off?"

Julien placed a hand next to his mouth. "Simple," he whispered, "you be watching us dance and then you be saying I won."

"Your majesty, that would be cheating."

"Fine, we'll pick someone else! Someone, you know, neutral-like."

"Who?" Maurice wondered. "I'm pretty sure everyone in the zoo who's not a lemur hates Emmeline."

"Not that koala guy," Julien said. "What's his name, Chester or something? Maybe Michael? Jerome is coming to mind."

"Leonard."

"Ah, yes, Leonard."

Emmeline suddenly tapped Julien's back to get his attention. "Hate to interrupt, but I didn't even agree to anything yet. What's in it for me, anyway?"

"I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul 'cause I think I'm better than you."

"Huh?"

"Oh, sorry, I just had 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' on my mind because I totally owned at the karaoke late last night. _In your face, Maurice!_ But anyway, the prize shall be—"

"No more learning _l'anglais_," Emmeline interrupted. "I've learned enough. I wouldn't even be speaking it now if it weren't for that Skipper idiot asking you for a 'progress report' on me all the time. If I win, I'm not coming back here tomorrow and you'll just have to make something up about what you taught me."

Julien thought for a moment, then nodded. "Fine," he said. "But what about if I win—I mean, _when_ I be winning?"

Emmeline then jumped up and grabbed Julien about the neck. "If you win, you get to keep your head." She then let go and dropped the short distance back to the ground.

Julien cleared his throat. "Right, then." He then turned to Maurice and clapped his hands together twice. "Maurice, go fetch for us the royal contest judge." He then whispered, "And a first aid kit, you know, just in case. Better safe than sorry."

Maurice nodded and then left to fulfill Julien's requests.

About five minutes later, the aye-aye returned with the koala in tow. "I can never win, can I?" Leonard complained as Maurice led him toward the competitors. "It's still quite early at night—I'm not even fully awake yet—and here I am dragged to the lemur habitat to judge some dance competition." He then shook his head and sighed. "Oh, I'd give anything to go back to Australia, even my bagpipes."

"All right, your majesty and Emmeline," Maurice said, "how do you two want to do this?"

"Hmm, that is being the very good question, Maurice," Julien said. "And as my advisor, I await your advice."

Maurice sighed. "How about you and Emmeline each pick out a song on the radio and both of you have to dance to each one."

"But, Maurice, that sounds too fair to be fair!"

Maurice just rolled his eyes.

"_J'accepte_," Emmeline said, accepting Maurice's suggestion. She then decided on her own that she would go first and waddled over to Julien's boom box. After fiddling around with the tuner knob, she stopped on an FM station playing classical music that she thought she could work with.

"Ugh, boring," Julien remarked as he faked a yawn. He then stretched and walked over to join Emmeline.

Once a new song began on the radio, Julien and Emmeline each began to dance to it. After beginning in _attitude en pointe_, Emmeline danced to the song using a variety of ballet moves—_battement tendus_, _sautés_, and _ronds de jambe_, just to name a few—and demonstrated all basic positions of the feet, first through fifth. Though she may not have been socially graceful, her technique at least was. Meanwhile, Julien danced to the song in his typical style, throwing out moves which were probably causing the long-ago artist that had composed the piece to roll over in his grave.

That's at least how things started out, anyway. About a minute or so in, the song's boring factor began to catch up with Julien, and his heart—not to mention his booty—was no longer in his performance. The king then slowed down to attempt dancing in a manner that was a bit more appropriate for the genre and began to copy some of Emmeline's moves, but he didn't get much farther than a few steps before the utter lack of excitement suddenly brought on feelings of sleepiness. And after a few more steps that were slow and almost dizzy in appearance, Julien suddenly stumbled and collapsed backward on top of his boom box, asleep.

"Your majesty!" Maurice said, concerned, as he ran over to see if Julien was all right. Emmeline, meanwhile, continued on, indifferent.

Julien was quickly brought back to consciousness by the sound of Maurice approaching. With the piece of classical music still playing, it took him but a moment to realize what had happened. Not that he'd admit to anything. "Meant to do that," he said coolly.

Still on the ground with his boom box next to him, the king then stretched his arms in preparation of getting back up to dance, bumping the tuner knob and unintentionally changing the station in the process. Suddenly, the music of a bygone era was replaced with that of another bygone but still much more recent era, the 1970s. "Ooh, now this is being more like it," Julien said as he stood up, his boom box now blasting out the sound of foot-tappin' glam rock, "The Ballroom Blitz" by The Sweet, to be precise.

Emmeline suddenly stopped her dancing. "_Qu'est-ce que c'est?_ Put it back."

"I can't do the doing of that, Emmeline," Julien said as he ran up to her, "it's just too good of a song." He then grabbed one of Emmeline's flippers and forced her into spinning around in a circle. "But don't be worrying, I'll count this as my selection."

"Get off!" Emmeline yelled as she tried but failed to get Julien to release her. "Haven't you learned?"

"Oh, shut up and go with it," Julien said. "I tried dancing your way and fell asleep. Now you try my way." He then turned Emmeline underneath his right arm.

Emmeline ground her beak. She hated that Julien was forcing her to dance with him—not to mention the type of song that he had accidentally selected—but she hated the thought of losing and having to continue learning English even more. She decided to let Julien have his fun with her. After all, it was only one song, right?

At the same time she was having these thoughts, she suddenly realized that her feet were no longer on the ground. She was instead staring into Julien's chest as he spun her around in the air by her flippers. Her heart nearly stopped as Julien then suddenly jerked her flippers upward before tossing her several feet into the air, but he was right there to catch her when she came down. "Julien!" she yelled as he caught her in his arms. He then shifted her over and dipped her until her head was about four inches from the ground.

Julien was clearly showing off. He was also winning. As he brought her back up from the dip, Emmeline decided that it was only fair to give Julien a little taste of his own medicine. Without warning, she then held onto Julien the same way she had just been held and dipped him—to within _three_ inches from the ground. She then pulled him back up and wrapped her flippers around his torso and began to spin with him faster and faster until she suddenly let go, leaving Julien alone to spin like a top.

Maybe it was the fast pace of the song, maybe it was just the spirit of competition, but it was on. Once Julien was able to stop himself from spinning, he engaged Emmeline in a double hand-hold with the intent to turn her, only for Emmeline to beat him to it and turn him instead. As they reconnected, Emmeline used all her strength to toss Julien into the air. She laughed as his crown flew off as he turned upside down before she caught him. "Wow," Julien said as Emmeline held onto him. Emmeline simply smiled before tossing him into the air once more.

When his feet reconnected with the ground, Julien took Emmeline by the waist and led her as they moved together from side to side and back and forth. They then took turns spinning and turning each other for a moment until both spontaneously decided that they were going to toss the other, which resulted in Julien and Emmeline each losing their balance and falling over on top of each other. Julien quickly stood up and helped Emmeline back up and then the two continued on with their impromptu routine.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, the dancing that Julien and Emmeline were doing seemed to become less about trying to outdo the other and more about enjoying the moment. Perhaps the two were a bit lost in that same moment as well, as when "The Ballroom Blitz" came to an end, their dancing didn't. Emmeline and Julien were now grooving to the sound of a man's voice doing some run-of-the-mill auto insurance commercial.

"Wow," Maurice said as he continued to watch Julien and Emmeline go at it. "Just wow." He then turned to Leonard standing next to him.

"I guess it's a draw, OK?" Leonard said. "Can I go home now?"

Maurice nodded.

"Thank goodness," the koala said as he turned around to leave.

Maurice then walked up to Julien and Emmeline, who had been dancing together for around five minutes so far. It was only his presence that caused the two to realize that the song they had been dancing to had ended. "Well, Leonard says it's a tie," Maurice said. "And with all due respect to you, King Julien, I'd have to agree with him."

Julien and Emmeline just stood there for a moment, each trying to catch their breath. Emmeline then forced a sigh. "Looks like I'll be back to learn English tomorrow, then," she said. "Oh, well. _C'est la vie_."

"If I may say so, Emmeline, you don't sound all that disappointed," Maurice commented.

"I agree," Julien said. "What gives?"

"Hey, y_ou_ lost, too, you know," Emmeline chuckled. "But I have to say that that was the most ... well, it was ... oh, it's not important. _Laissez tomber_."

"Oh, come on," Julien said. "Tell me, tell me, tell me! Spill your guts, Emmeline!" He then held a hand up, as if to stop her from doing something. "Eh, not literally, of course. That would be kind of messy, and Maurice is much too busy to be cleaning them up."

Maurice nodded in agreement. "It's true, I'm too busy."

"Well," Emmeline continued, "it's just that the dancing we just did together was probably the most fun I've had in years." She then patted Julien on the back. "_Merci beaucoup_," she said. "_Votre Majesté_," she added a second later with a respectful bow.

— § —

"Are you sure you want to do this now?" Kowalski asked. "France's time zone is six hours ahead of ours. It's," he then looked up at the clock on the wall, "let's see here," he then mumbled to himself as he moved a few beads back and forth on his abacus, "it's 1:46 a.m. over there right now."

"Time zones are for hippies," Skipper replied. "The only time that matters is go time."

Kowalski nodded, then began to input a message into his Speak & Spell–type computing device. Meanwhile, Skipper held the telephone receiver to his earhole as Private dialed the number they had looked up for the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes, the zoo in Paris that Emmeline had originally come from. Since the zookeepers there—and in Versailles—were apparently too dull to figure out where Emmeline was on their own by now, it was time to drop the humans a little hint.

After a few rings, there was an answer across the Atlantic. "_Bonjour._"

"Kowalski!" Skipper yelled. "Hurry up!"

Kowalski quickly finished typing the message and then held his device close to the receiver as he pressed the button to play the translation: "_Hallo, haben Sie einen Pinguin verloren?_"

Skipper turned to Kowalski puzzledly. "What the—? Was that even French?"

"Um ...," Kowalski replied, trying to stall for time, as he fiddled about with his device a little.

"Yes, _Bon Jovi_ to you, too," Skipper then said to the man in Paris who had answered, just in case the man could understand English penguin talk. "Be with you in just one moment."

The man, however, seemed to ignore Skipper completely as he continued to talk over him. "_... Pour parler à un responsable, merci de rappeler entre 10 et 16 heures du lundi au vendredi, ou de 9 heure à 18 heure le samedi et le dimanche. Si vous souhaitez que nous vous rappelions, merci de laisser votre nom et numéro de téléphone après le bip sonore._" Skipper then heard the sound of a beep.

"Hey, Kowalski," Skipper said, "do they have answering machines in France?"

"Did you just hear a beep?"

"Yeah," Skipper replied.

"Well, there's your answer."

"Well, hurry up with the translation before my time gets cut off. I don't know how much time you get with French answering machines. Don't they measure time in metric or something?"

Within moments, Kowalski found the right combination of buttons on his device to translate English to French instead of German. He then quickly typed a revised message and then pressed the play button.

"_Bonjour_," it said in its digital voice. "_Notre identité importe peu, mais nous savons où est votre pingouin. Elle est au Zoo de Central Park à New York. Venez la chercher. Au revoir._"

Once the message was done playing, Kowalski nodded in Skipper's direction. Skipper then hung up the phone to end the call.

"Excellent work, Kowalski," Skipper then said as he smiled. "At least I think it was excellent work. What was the message in good ole Americano, anyway?"

"The message was: 'Good morning. Who we are is not important, but we know where your penguin is. The Central Park Zoo in New York. Come get her. Goodbye,'" Kowalski replied.

"I love it," Skipper concluded. "It pithily contains all the information the Parisian zookeepers need, plus adds in a little bit of mystery for good measure." He then patted Kowalski on the back. "I couldn't have put it better myself."

Kowalski smiled. "Thanks, Skipper."

"Up high boys," Skipper chuckled as he and his teammates then high-fived their flippers together. "Soon Emmeline will be out of our feathers and out of the fur of all the mammals and out of the scales of all the reptiles, et cetera, et cetera. We've done good, gentlemen, we've done good."

* * *

><p>Published April 1, 2012; French revised April 3, 2012, with my thanks to GwiñverArRouz.<p>

**Translations:** _Vous ne pouvez pas me toucher!_ (You can't touch me!) | _l'anglais_ (English) | _J'accepte_ (I accept) | _Qu'est-ce que c'est?_ (What is this?) | _C'est la vie_ (That's life) | _Laissez tomber_ (Forget it) | _Merci beaucoup_ (Thank you very much) | _Votre Majesté_ (Your majesty) | _Bonjour_ (Hello) | _Hallo, haben Sie einen Pinguin verloren?_ (Hello, did you lose a penguin? [German]) | _... Pour parler à un responsable, merci de rappeler entre 10 et 16 heures du lundi au vendredi, ou de 9 heure à 18 heure le samedi et le dimanche. Si vous souhaitez que nous vous rappelions, merci de laisser votre nom et numéro de téléphone après le bip sonore._ (... To speak to a representative, please call back between the hours of 10 and 4, Monday through Friday; 9 and 6, Saturday and Sunday. If you wish to receive a return call, please leave your name and number after the beep.)


	5. More Coffee?

Skipper stared at Emmeline in total shock and disbelief. He tapped his left flipper against the table rhythmically, as a nervous man might do with his fingers either consciously or unconsciously to try to quell his anxious feelings. He just couldn't believe that this was for real.

"More coffee?" Emmeline asked as she stood next to Skipper, hovering the coffee pot above Skipper's mug on the table.

Skipper stared for a few more seconds before responding, "No, no, I'm good." He then picked up his mug and took a few long sips even though the mug was empty.

"I'll have some more, please," Private said.

Skipper then reached across the table and gave Private a quick slap. "You seem not to understand, Private," he said. "The coffee's not real. The coffee pot's not real. You're not real. The slap I just gave you wasn't even real. This is just a dream, an illusion before our very eyes." He then turned to Kowalski. "Kowalski, analysis."

Kowalski then looked about the room for a moment before pulling out his abacus and sliding a few of its beads to the left and then a few to the right. He then nodded before sticking his right flipper into his beak and biting down upon it. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Too much pressure! Whoa, mama!" he exclaimed as he pulled his flipper out and shook it in the air a little to try to dull the pain.

Rico then made a "crazy" gesture next to his head and then pointed at Kowalski.

"Well," Kowalski continued, "the results are in and I can conclusively say that we're not dreaming." He then noticed a few small drops of blood on the table and looked at the flipper he had bitten. "Also, I think I should probably wash this before it becomes infected. Excuse me." He then stood up and waddled away from the table.

"Well, if it's not a dream, what is it?" Skipper asked to no one in particular.

"Maybe Emmeline's, you know, changed," Private replied.

"Or playing us all for fools."

"Uh, you do know that I understand more English than you'd probably expect after two weeks, right?" Emmeline asked. "I'm a fast learner, even if I'm learning against my will. In fact, I probably learned more English last night than I had the many nights before."

"Well, uh," Skipper struggled to come up with a response, "you know, good, I guess."

Private was about to add a comment of his own when the door that was Private's first prize fish swung open.

"Intrud—!" Skipper began to yell as he jumped up from the table, stopping himself upon realizing who it was. "Oh, it's just you, Marlene," he said as he sat back down. "You should really consider knocking, you know."

"You should lead by example, Skipper," she replied as she walked into the HQ. "Anyway, I was just wondering if—" She then stopped mid-sentence as she saw Emmeline look over at her. "You know what? I'll just come back when your HQ is a little less crowded." She then looked right at Emmeline and said, assuming Emmeline hadn't learned much English, "After all, I talk too much." Marlene then turned around to head back out the fish plaque door when it instead opened and crashed into her. "Whoa!"

"_Bonjour, les voisins!_" Julien greeted as he entered into the room, oblivious to the fact that his entrance had inadvertently knocked Marlene to the floor. "Hello, neighbors!"

"Hi," Marlene remarked as she rubbed her head. She then picked herself up from the floor and proceeded out of the HQ as planned.

"Oh, Emmeline, there you are!" Julien continued as he walked over to where the penguins were. "I thought you were to be coming over early today. Me and Maurice have so much more to teach you!"

"You mean, 'Maurice and _I_,'" Emmeline chuckled.

Skipper stared at Emmeline once again. Since when did she know more about the English language than Julien, even if he regularly butchered it? And why wasn't she bitter about the idea of learning more?"

"That's it, people, I need answers," Skipper declared. He then pointed at Julien. "You, Ring-tail, what do you know about Emmeline that I don't?"

"Uh," the lemur began, "let's see here. Her birthday is March 5, her middle name is Antoinette, her favorite color is blue ..."

"You know what I mean! Why is she no longer acting all holier-than-thou? Why isn't she giving us any lip—er, _beak_? Why is she suddenly, you know, _nice_?"

Julien shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Don't give me that," Skipper replied. "You lemurs are the only ones that Emmeline interacts with regularly besides us. Surely you know something. What method did you use to bring about Emmeline's sudden change in personality? Brainwashing? Voodoo? Waterboarding?" He then paused in thought for a moment before continuing, "And whatever you used, can you teach it to me?"

"We didn't do anything," Julien replied. "All we did was dance the night away."

"Dancing?"

"I challenged Emmeline to a dance-off," Julien continued. "Maurice told me not to do it, but what does he know? He's only my advisor, and when he doesn't be giving me the advice I am wanting to be hearing, it is only proper to reject it and proceed as I was planning to do anyway. Anyway, Emmeline accepted my challenge and yada, yada, yada, we were both the loser guys but had a rockin' good time. Isn't that right, Emmeline?"

Emmeline nodded.

"Then we continued to be dancing for hours to oh so many songs as I explained to Emmeline the meanings of the words of the lyrics," Julien continued. "Except for all the words I had no idea what meant, which I left to that linguistic prescriptivist Maurice. Whatever that means. But the whole thing was just buckets of fun!"

"It was the most fun I've had in a very long time," Emmeline added. "You see, I've danced ballet since I was a _petite fille_, but I had never danced _with_ anyone before."

"Really?" Private wondered. "Are there no other penguins back in France?"

"There are others, but most are either men who imagine themselves part of the _Légion étrangère_ or are the women who are their wives and girlfriends," Emmeline replied. "But I never had any desire to dance with a partner anyway. The visitors at my old zoo in Paris always enjoyed my performances, and I always enjoyed their attention too much to let others—" She then paused for a moment before turning to Julien. "Oh, what was that term again?"

"You didn't want others to _cramp your style_," Julien said.

Emmeline nodded. "Right, I didn't want them to cramp my style," she continued. "But then Julien cramped my style last night and made me wish that I had had it cramped long ago."

"And we would have danced on and on and on until daybreak and beyond if I hadn't cramped my own style by then getting the cramps in my leg," Julien said. "Maurice also told me to be doing the stretching before having an all-night dance party, you see, but I ignored that advice, too. But next time I think I'll actually be taking it. Possibly. Maybe. Perhaps. We'll see."

"All right, I'm back," Kowalski said as he rejoined the group, noticing then that Julien was also there. "Oh, hello, Julien. Did I miss anything?"

"Allow me to summarize what you missed by asking you two questions," Skipper replied. "Kowalski, in your big-brained scientific opinion, do you think it is possible for a self-centered lemur to be able to render nice an equally if not more self-centered penguin by dancing together overnight? And do you think it is possible for said self-centered penguin to be able to learn fluent English from said self-centered lemur and a non-self-centered but more portly lemur over the same night through song lyrics?"

Kowalski chuckled. "Anything is possible in fan fiction."

"Uh, what's fan fiction?" Private wondered.

"Oh, sorry," Kowalski apologized. "My mind was just drifting off to a new poem I'm writing about Doris in which she finally requites my love. As for your questions, Skipper, I'd say there's a 99.9 percent surety that both are not only possible, but explain exactly what happened."

"And what about the other 0.1 percent?" Skipper asked.

"That would account for the slimmest of chances that Emmeline is actually a penguin-shaped space squid."

"Hmm, I don't like those odds," Skipper said. "We need to know for sure." He then turned to Julien. "Ring-tail, I need you to be completely honest with me. Have you ever seen Emmeline's tentacles or noticed her gazing up into the sky without reason or caught her trying to make contact with some distant home planet?"

Julien shook his head. "Nope."

"No mashed potato sculptures or anything like that?"

"She doesn't even like potatoes."

"Well, all right, then," Skipper said cheerfully. "It looks like this change is for real." He then stood up and gave Julien a pat on the back. "Ring-tail, go put on that atrocious Generalissimo Julien outfit of yours because you deserve medal."

"Eh, maybe later," the king replied. "Right now, me and Emmeline—I mean, _Emmeline and I_—must be off."

* * *

><p>Published April 3, 2012; French revised April 8, 2012, with my thanks to GwiñverArRouz.<p>

**Translations:** _Bonjour, les voisins!_ (Hello, neighbors!) | _petite fille_ (little girl) | _Légion étrangère_ (Foreign Legion)


	6. Two to Tango

"OK, so _highway_ means the same as _autoroute_ and _headlights_ are the same as _phares_," Emmeline said as she danced with Julien to an Elton John song in the back of the lemur habitat, "but what does _Tony Danza_ mean in French?"

"It's not _Tony Danza_, it's _tiny dancer_," Julien chuckled. "But don't be feeling the bad, Emmeline, lots of Americans get that part wrong, too."

The two continued to dance on until the song ended and the variety music station that Julien had tuned in on his boom box went to a commercial break. "Hey, you know what would be real super fantastic with a hint of awesomeness? We should dance in front of the all silly human peoples instead of hiding away back here," Julien said.

"I don't know," Emmeline replied. "Won't they wonder what I'm doing in your habitat?"

"You mean compared to all the freakish things that go on here each and every day? Come on, Emmeline, be living a little!"

Emmeline chuckled. "You just want a dance partner so that you can show off in front of everybody," she teased.

Julien smiled. "Yes, yes, that is certainly part of the reason."

"And the rest of the reason?"

"Because it would be fun! And I should be knowing a thing or two about fun, it's my middle name."

"I thought you told me your middle name was Julius."

"Well, I just added another one. I can do that as king."

Emmeline chuckled. "OK, I'll do it."

Julien then turned up the volume on his boom box and he and Emmeline then walked to the front of the habitat. Once the commercial break was over, the two continued swaying to the music.

A few minutes later, two girls, each about 12 years old, walked up to the wall. "Huh, I wonder why that lemur is wearing a leafy hat," one of the girls said to the other, the fact that a penguin was inside the lemur habitat not even crossing her mind.

"Maybe it's one of those objects the zookeepers sometimes place in habitats for enrichment purposes," the other girl, the brainiac of the two, replied.

The first girl shrugged her shoulders. "I guess," she said as she and her friend walked on to the next exhibit.

As passersby came and went, Julien and Emmeline danced to the various songs that came across Julien's boom box—some rock, some pop, a few even country and disco—largely making up their manner of dance impromptu to fit with the style and rhythm of each piece of music. And whenever new words popped up in the lyrics, Julien continued to explain their meanings to Emmeline.

After a while, a song came on that had no lyrics. Instead, it was an intriguing Latin-sounding instrumental piece with a 4/4 time signature.

"Say, Emmeline," Julien said, "do you know the tango?"

"I know the phrase, '_Il faut être deux pour danser le tango_,' but I do not know the dance. Since it requires a partner, I've never had a reason to learn it."

Julien smiled as he pointed at himself. "Well, now you be having the partner."

"You know the tango?"

Julien nodded. "When you watch _Dancing with the Stars_ for as long as I have, it's hard not to do the picking up of a few moves. I usually just add booty shakes to whatever I learn, but I don't have to." He then raised his left arm up to around eye level and positioned his hand as if holding onto something that wasn't there. He then placed his right arm at a slight angle, holding his palm several inches away from the front of his body.

Emmeline looked at him puzzledly. "Julien, are you trying to mime?"

"Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow," he said as he and his imaginary partner danced the steps of the eight-count basic tango. "Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. It's really quite simple, Emmeline." He then smiled. "It's even simpler when dancing with someone not made of air."

Emmeline took Julien's hint and waddled over to stand in front of him. "OK, show me."

Julien then placed his right hand in the middle of Emmeline's back. "Now be taking to the lower part of my right shoulder with your left flipper," he instructed. "Good," he said as she did so. He then raised his left hand into position and Emmeline reached her right flipper up to hold onto it instinctively. The two were standing so that Emmeline was slightly to Julien's right. "Are you ready to begin?" he asked.

Emmeline nodded.

Julien then stepped forward with his left foot as he guided Emmeline. "Now be stepping back with your right foot," he said. Emmeline responded by stepping back with her left. "Eh, your other right foot. _À droite_."

"Sorry, just nervous." She then stepped back with the correct foot.

"Now you can be going back on your left," Julien continued. He stepped forward with his right foot as Emmeline did her part. "And now for the quick counts. Back on the right, then to the side with the left." Julien guided the walks gradually leftward as they danced. "Now be closing your right foot to your left." Emmeline brought her feet together to complete the step. Julien smiled. "_Magnifique!_"

"You really think so?"

Julien nodded. "Indeed. You're a regular Cheryl Burke."

Emmeline smiled.

"Come on," Julien said as he put a little pressure on Emmeline's right flipper to lead her, "let's do it again." He then once again gave her the directions as they executed each step.

After repeating the pattern a few times over, Julien stopped giving Emmeline the verbal instructions, and the two kept perfect time with one another as they danced on. Before long, Emmeline began to pick up subtle signals from Julien, and additional steps were easily added in.

Suddenly, Julien looked away from Emmeline for a moment and noticed that a large crowd of zoo visitors had gathered around the lemur habitat. His performances for popcorn and adoration usually drew an audience, but never one this large. "Hey, Emmeline," Julien said, "look to your left."

Emmeline took a quick glance, then turned back to Julien. "I didn't know that many people could fit into this zoo. Are you sure we're still safe?"

Julien led a walk in the promenade position as he responded. "As long as Alice doesn't do the catching of you here, we're fine." The two then continued dancing the tango until the instrumental piece of music ended.

"Wonderful!" a woman watching shouted as the whole crowd began to clap, cheer, and whistle at Julien and Emmeline's performance. "It takes two to tango," a man said as he chuckled. Another man turned to his wife and said, "It's amazing what zoos can teach their animals to do these days."

"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind," Julien said as he faced the audience. He then reached out for Emmeline's flipper, and together they took a bow.

— § —

Shortly after the crowd parted, Julien left the lemur habitat alone. He had told Maurice that he had an unspecified royal thing to go do, and asked the aye-aye to work on teaching Emmeline some more English grammar until he returned. Maurice agreed.

After a walk that was over before it really began, Julien arrived at his destination. "Hey, Ring-tail," Skipper greeted as Julien approached the gate of the penguin habitat. "What's new? You know, besides drawing such a large crowd in front of your habitat earlier that the boys and I heard cricket chirps during our 'cute and cuddly' routine."

Julien smiled. "It's wonderful to be having Emmeline for a dance partner," he said. "So much better than to be having to dance with Maurice or Mort. Maurice always steps on my feet by accident and Mort, well, he does the same thing but not by accident. The fact that Emmeline is a lady also makes the whole thing a lot less awkward, too." He then wiggled his eyebrows a little. "And the fact that she is a _pretty_ lady ..."

Skipper chuckled. "My gut is telling me that there's a bit more to this story than just you finding someone to cut a rug with. You've really got something for this penguin girl, don't you?"

The king nodded. "Indeed that is being the truth and nothing but it. Who would have thought that I, King Julien, would ever develop the feelings for a penguin? Certainly not me." He then chuckled. "But if the bird and mammal thing hasn't stopped you and the otter, why should it stop me?"

"Uh, Marlene and I are just friends, Ring-tail."

"Right," Julien said as he winked, "you keep telling yourself that."

Skipper tried to conceal his resulting blush, but completely failed at doing so.

"Anyway," Julien continued, "I could use a bit of advice."

— § —

"And that's the gist of what irregular verbs are all about in English," Maurice said.

Emmeline simply nodded to acknowledge what Maurice had just explained to her.

"Are you all right, Emmeline? You still seem a little confused."

"I'm fine," Emmeline replied. "_Choose–chose–chosen_, _eat–ate–eaten_. I was just thinking about someone else for a moment."

"_Something_," Maurice corrected.

"No, I meant _someone_," she continued. "I was thinking about Julien."

"I'm boring you that much, huh? Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be back before long."

"Actually," Emmeline said, "I hope he doesn't come back too quickly. While it's just the two of us here, I was hoping I could talk to you about something."

"I'm here, too!" Mort said from a few feet away before giggling.

"Hey, Mort," Maurice called over to him, "could you give Emmeline and I a few moments alone, please? Why don't you go over to King Julien's bounce house and play with Rodney for a while."

"OK!" Mort said as he reached for his tail. "Come on, Rodney, I'll race you!"

"All right, Emmeline," Maurice continued, "what is it?"

"Well, Julien and I danced the tango earlier this morning."

Maurice nodded. "I know, I saw it. You were both quite good."

"I had a great deal of fun, just like I had during that dance-off last night," Emmeline continued. She then smiled. "But I think my enjoyment came less from the dances themselves and more from the man behind them."

"_Julien?_" Maurice couldn't help but ask even though he knew Emmeline couldn't have been referring to anyone else.

Emmeline nodded. "When we dance, I feel more of a connection between us than just our hands and flippers. I'm not sure what you call it in English, but you could say I've got a bit of a _béguin_ on him."

"A _crush_, huh?" Maurice chuckled.

"If that's what you Americans call it, yes." She then paused for a moment before continuing, "If I understand correctly, no one knows Julien as well as you do. So tell me, Maurice, what should I do?"

Maurice gripped his chin in thought for a moment. "Well, Emmeline," he said as a smile came to him, "I think I have an idea."

* * *

><p>Published April 5, 2012; French revised April 8, 2012, with my thanks to GwiñverArRouz.<p>

**Translations:** _Il faut être deux pour danser le tango_ (It takes two to tango) | _À droite_ (Right) | _Magnifique!_ (Wonderful!)


	7. Plans for the Evening

"Sorry to keep you doing the waiting, Emmeline," Julien said as he returned to the lemur habitat around 45 minutes after he had left. "Sometimes kingly duties be taking longer than expected."

"Just relax," Maurice then said to Emmeline as he patted her on the shoulder. "When the right moment comes, you'll know it."

Emmeline nodded and then turned to look in Julien's direction, but the ring-tailed royal was nowhere to be seen. "Julien?" She turned her head to the left and then back to the right. "Where did you go?" She then heard the sound of music coming from across the habitat. The song that was playing then abruptly changed to another and then to static before a third song could be heard.

Julien then emerged from having turned on his boom box. "Just changing stations before we be continuing on with our dancing," he said as he walked up to Emmeline. He then extended his right hand toward her. "Might I be having this dance?"

Emmeline chuckled as she accepted his hand into her flipper and stood up. "Certainly, _monsieur_."

Just like they had earlier, Julien and Emmeline then went to the front of the habitat to dance together in full view of the zoo visitors. They did so for the next 27 minutes or so as a total of six songs played on the radio: "Baby, I Love Your Way," "That's When I Love You," "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," "Endless Love," "I Swear," and "My Heart Will Go On."

About a minute into a seventh song, "I Knew I Loved You," Emmeline stopped dancing for a moment. She chuckled. "Is it just me, or is there a theme to all these songs?"

Julien blushed. After having tuned in to the local love song station, it was now time for him to put the rest of his plan into motion. "I don't know, maybe," he said with a smile. He then stopped dancing himself and held Emmeline by the flippers. "Tell me, does a pretty lady like you have plans for this evening?"

It was then that Emmeline felt that the "right moment" had arrived. But instead of asking Julien out for the evening like she had planned to do, suddenly he was the one asking her. She decided to play with him a bit. "Tonight?" she asked.

Julien nodded. "Yes, tonight. I've already to be making the reservation at the best—and only—restaurant on the block, the zoo snack bar. All the fishy fish sticks you can eat!"

Emmeline sighed and shook her head. "Well, I don't know if I can make it, Julien. I already made plans."

"Really?"

Emmeline nodded. "_Oui_," she said. "I was hoping you could join me at the snack bar for an evening together. All the watermelon slices you can eat!"

Julien chuckled. He was truly touched that Emmeline had already planned an evening out with him, just as she was touched that he had already planned one with her. "Well," he said, "I guess we'll each just have to be rescheduling our plans, won't we?"

Emmeline smiled. "So, _sept heures_, then?"

Julien placed a hand around Emmeline's back. "It's a date."

— § —

At precisely 7 p.m., the penguins were all startled by the unexpected sound of a horn tooting outside the penguin habitat.

"Private, go check that out," Skipper said.

Private then waddled over to the periscope to investigate. He chuckled as he peered out through it. "It's King Julien, sir," he said. "And he's got Alice's zoo kart."

Emmeline smiled. "I guess that's for me, then. I'll see you all later." She then exited the HQ to meet up with her date.

"Hi, Julien," she said as she waddled over to the kart and took a seat next to the lemur driver. "I thought we were just going to walk to the snack bar."

"Why walk when we can be doing the riding in style?" he replied. "Plus, I thought it might be fun to be going on a little drive together first."

"Sure," she said.

Julien then fiddled about with the paperclip he was using as a key until the kart started back up. "All right, Emmeline, be holding on."

Emmeline chuckled as Julien then moved the kart forward.

Julien glanced over at Emmeline and then made a gripping gesture with his hands. "No, seriously, hold on," he said. "The last time I was being behind the wheel of one of these babies, I totaled it. It was the brick wall's fault mainly, but still."

Emmeline nodded and then gripped the seat with a flipper.

The two then rode throughout the zoo, much of which Emmeline had already seen during her pre–English lesson wanderings, but there were still a number of things that she hadn't noticed before. Every so often, Julien would stop the kart and make a comment about something—an animal, a tree, a habitat feature, something he had done once—providing Emmeline with the kind of information she might have gotten had her first tour of the zoo gone the way Julien had intended. It made her wish she hadn't made enemies with the rest of the zoo population by having clashed with everyone from Burt to Barry and from Roy to Randy.

As Julien turned the corner out by Burt's habitat while on the way over to the snack bar, Emmeline reached her flipper into a bucket of peanuts that Alice had left in the back of the kart. She then tossed a flipperful of them into the elephant's habitat as they passed by.

"What was that about?" Julien turned to her and wondered.

"It just seemed like a nice thing to do," she replied. She then smiled to herself as she heard Burt in the distance thanking whoever the mystery person was that had just tossed him peanuts.

— § —

As Julien and Emmeline walked up to the door of the snack bar, Maurice was waiting there to open it for them.

"_Merci_, Maurice," Emmeline said as she entered.

"Thanking you, Maurice," Julien said as he followed behind her.

Maurice smiled as the two walked past, then shut the door as he walked in himself.

"I hope you aren't minding that Maurice is here," Julien then said to Emmeline. "I figured we could be using a waiter, so I asked him if he would be doing it after telling him about our date."

"Oh?" Emmeline chuckled. "I thought he was here because _I_ asked him to be our waiter for tonight."

"You're both right," Maurice said. "Emmeline asked me first, but I figured that I could easily accommodate both of you while still keeping each of your requests a surprise for the other."

"So, Maurice," Julien then whispered, "does this mean I still need to be leaving you the tip?"

Maurice just chuckled as he showed Julien and Emmeline to their table. The lemur king then attempted to pull out Emmeline's chair for her as an act of chivalry, only for the chair to refuse to cooperate.

"Those chairs don't actually pull out, your majesty," Maurice whispered. "Their supports are fixed to the floor."

"I see," Julien said as he stepped aside.

Emmeline then took her seat and then looked to Julien. "Don't worry, it's the thought that counts."

After Julien took his seat across from Emmeline, Maurice handed each of them a menu. "I'm pretty sure I know what each of you is going to have already, but here you go anyway."

As Emmeline looked at her menu, which was just a simple photocopied list of the available items at the snack bar, she couldn't make out a thing on it. "Hey, Julien," she said, "would you mind reading the menu to me, _s'il vous plaît_? Thanks to you I can speak English, but I still can't read any yet."

"Certainly, my dear." Julien then cleared his throat before reading off his menu. "Let's see here. Hamburger, cheeseburger, hotdog, pizza slice, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, something called 'log of meat,' French fries, onion rings, breadsticks, potato chips, watermelon slice, and bagel."

"I think I'll have the fish sticks," Emmeline said as she handed her menu back to Maurice.

"And I'll be having a slice of watermelon," Julien said as he did the same. "But out of the curiousness, what is being in the log of meat?"

"You don't want to know," Maurice said as he walked away to fetch what Julien and Emmeline had ordered.

Julien and Emmeline quietly conversed while waiter/chef Maurice was gone. While they had talked of music, dancing, and English before, as well as engaged in small talk, the two now talked of more substantial, more personal matters, such as Julien's life in Madagascar, Emmeline growing up as an only chick, and each other's hopes and dreams. And unlike the numerous times each had wished to talk about themselves with others, both Julien and Emmeline were genuinely interested in hearing about each other. It was amazing how far two self-centered individuals had come simply by being together.

Maurice returned with the food about 15 minutes later. "One order of _bâtonnets de poisson_ for you, _mademoiselle_," he said as he placed a plate of fish sticks in front of Emmeline. "And your _tranche de pastèque, monsieur_," he said as he set Julien's watermelon slice down. "Will there be anything to drink? We don't have any Moët & Chandon, but we've got Mountain Dew and Pepsi."

"Got any _eau_?" Julien asked.

"Yes, I could also go for some _eau_," Emmeline said.

"Two glasses of water it is," Maurice said as he began to walk away.

"Wait, Maurice," Julien called him back, "could you also be dimming the lights, please?"

Maurice nodded and then walked away once more.

As soon as the lights were lowered, Julien pulled a three-armed brass candelabrum out from behind his back and placed it in the center of the table. He then stuck a candle in each of the holders and lit them. "_Dîner aux chandelles_," he said.

Emmeline smiled. "Very lovely," she said. "But where did you get a _candélabre_? I didn't see you walk in with it."

"The smart penguin be teaching me the trick for hiding things," Julien replied. "What he can do with the clippy boards and the counting bead thingies, I can do with the fancy candle holders and the candles."

Emmeline chuckled. "_C'est très gentil_, Julien. You think of everything."

A few moments later, Maurice returned with two glasses of New York's finest tap water and set them down on the table. "If that will be all, I think I'll leave you two alone for a while to enjoy your dinner together. I'll be back in around 30 minutes or so with some dessert options." The waiter then left the snack bar so that his guests could enjoy some time just being together.

* * *

><p>Published April 7, 2012; French revised April 8, 2012, with my thanks to GwiñverArRouz.<p>

**Translations:** _monsieur_ (mister) | _Oui_ (Yes) | _sept heures_ (seven o'clock) | _Merci_ (Thank you) | _s'il vous plaît_ (please) | _bâtonnets de poisson_ (fish sticks) | _mademoiselle_ (miss) | _tranche de pastèque_ (slice of watermelon) | _eau_ (water) | _Dîner aux chandelles_ (Dinner by candlelight) | _candélabre_ (candelabrum) | _C'est très gentil_ (That's very nice)


	8. Je T'aime

It had been official for days now. Although he had long told tales of having girlfriends north of the border, Julien now had a real woman in his life. And while he had once imagined having a Quebecer lemur girlfriend with whom he could share a love of French, he had so much more in common with Emmeline even if she didn't have soft, gray fur. And he truly felt lucky to have her.

As another day came to the Central Park Zoo, Alice sighed as she saw what had been delivered and left for her while she was punching in for the day inside the zoo's administrative office. "Another day, another crate," she said to herself as she walked up to the wooden box, which was about the same size as a large microwave and left across from the office. She then tapped on the side of the crate, expecting to hear whatever was inside respond with a sound of one type or another, but heard nothing from inside but silence. She then pulled a small flashlight out of her pocket and shined it into one of the box's many air holes and peered into it through another. "Great, someone shipped me a ghost," Alice remarked upon seeing that the crate was empty.

Just then, a gust of wind blew from behind Alice and flapped about a piece of paper that had been stapled to the top of the crate. "Oh, duh," Alice said as the flapping paper caught her attention, "this probably explains things." She then tore off the paper and read it.

_Zoo de Versailles  
><em>_Versailles, France_

_Dear Sir or Madam:_

_It is with great appreciation that I thank the Central Park Zoo for temporarily accommodating a penguin that had been transferred into our collection and accidentally lost during transfer. We have only recently learned through our sister zoo in Paris of the penguin's whereabouts following an apparent mix up at the Charles de Gaulle Airport. Admittedly, the penguin probably should have been transported from Paris to Versailles by road instead of by plane—it's only 25 kilometers between our zoos—but that's neither here nor there._

_We at Zoo de Versailles eagerly await being able to integrate our lost-and-found avian into our collection, and have provided this crate as a means of transport for the bird to our facility. Transportation costs and customs issues have already been addressed by Zoo de Versailles, and we have arranged for a courier to pick up this crate on Friday the 23rd._

_Again, we appreciate all the Central Park Zoo has done in looking after the welfare of our animal._

_Warmest regards,_

_Henri S. Auguste  
><em>_Director, Zoo de Versailles_

"Well, that's one less beak to feed," Alice remarked as she finished the letter and set it back on top of the crate. "It's about time, actually." She then began to head in the direction of the zoo storage facility to get a hand truck to better move the crate with when there was a call on her radio.

"Yo, Alice, you better get over to the women's restroom," her male co-worker said. "Someone flushed a bunch of paper towels, and I've been told it's not a pretty picture."

Alice grabbed her radio out of her back pocket. "Can't you handle it? I'm busy."

"What part of it's the _women's_ restroom did you not understand?"

Alice sighed. "Fine, I'm on it. I'll be there as soon as I can grab a mop and a plunger."

"Uh, I think you better make it two plungers."

Alice groaned and then began to walk off to where the zoo's janitorial supplies were kept.

"Alice is on the move, Skipper," Kowalski reported as he observed the zookeeper's movements through his binoculars. "We're clear."

"Excellent," Skipper replied. "Now let's move in and find out what's in that box." He then gave Private a quick pat on the back. "Great job clogging up that toilet, by the way. Fearlessly venturing into the dark and mysterious world of the women's lavatory, you're a braver soul than me."

Private chuckled. "All in a day's work."

Carefully, the four penguins then emerged from the overgrown bush they had hidden themselves inside and waddled over to the crate. Skipper, Kowalski, and Private then assumed defensive positions as Rico used a crowbar to pry open the box.

Skipper sighed. "Well, that's a disappointment. I was expecting to have to throw a few punches, not stare into an empty box."

"Perhaps someone's being transported out of the zoo," Private suggested.

Skipper put a flipper to his lower beak. "Hmm, maybe. But if that were the case, I'd expect there to be a written indicator of some sort."

"You mean like this one?" Kowalski asked as he grabbed the letter Alice had left on top of the crate. He then took a moment to read what it said. "Well, I have some good news and some bad news."

"Give the good first, please," Private said. "It's always important to stay positive about things."

"Very well," Kowalski said. "The good news is that we succeeded in another mission."

"And the bad?" Skipper asked.

"The bad news is that we succeeded in another mission," Kowalski sighed. "This crate is here to bring Emmeline back to France."

"Aww, that's too bad," Private said sadly. "She and Julien have gotten so close. It's a shame for something so beautiful to have to come to an end."

"I agree," Skipper added. "A cheerful and occupied Ring-tail has been a blessing to us all lately. And, even though I don't want to get too lovey-dovey here and risk aggravating Rico's sensitivities, I'm happy that the guy could finally find someone special." He then pointed at the letter Kowalski was still holding. "Maybe we can still hit the undo button on this operation. How long do we have until Emmeline is supposed to ship out?"

"A courier is supposed to pick up the crate on the 23rd, which is today," Kowalski answered. "He or she could potentially arrive at any moment."

"Blast!" Skipper said. "Once Alice is done cleaning up Private's handiwork, she'll be off to grab Emmeline. We don't have much time to act, men. We've got to warn Ring-tail and Emmeline." And with that, the four dropped to their bellies and began to slide back to the penguin habitat.

Ever since they had gotten closer, Julien and Emmeline spent most of their time together at the lemur habitat. This morning, however, Skipper had allowed them to stay at the HQ alone in order to use the penguins' sound system, as after recent heavy use, the batteries in Julien's boom box had finally gone to join Baxter in Battery Heaven.

When the penguins arrived, they found Julien and Emmeline sitting together atop the habitat's cement platform. In his hand, Julien held a peach and anchovy smoothie that he was sharing with Emmeline, its unusual blend of fruit and fish creating a uniquely flavored beverage that both his and Emmeline's taste buds found pleasing. "Hello, neighbors!" he greeted as the team approached him. He then waited for Emmeline to finish a sip before he stood up and held the smoothie out in front of them. "You guys have got to be trying some of this delicious smoothie! Just give me a moment to go grab a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth straw!"

Skipper sighed. "Ring-tail, Emmeline, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but something's come up," he said. "The boys and I just discovered a crate out by the zoo office. It was from France."

"Oh, no need for alarm," Julien chuckled. "That's just my new collection of imported wool berets. Emmeline told me I would be looking the cute in one, but I couldn't decide which color to get from that place called the Internet. So I got them all!"

"The crate was empty, Ring-tail," Skipper continued. "There's really no easy way to put it: Emmeline's going back to France. The zoo that she was originally supposed to be transferred to ... well, let's just say they found out that she's here. A courier is set to come sometime today to pick her up." He then placed a flipper on Julien's back. "I'm sorry. And in more ways than one."

Julien just stood there shocked for around 10 seconds before the smoothie he was holding suddenly fell from his grip. "What? But this cannot be! You must go on one of your penguiny missions and be putting the stoppage to this injustice!"

"We would if we could," Kowalski added. "But time is not on our side. It would be if my time machine were operational, but I'm afraid that breakthrough is still a few years off."

"Please? There must be something you can do." He then looked up into the sky. "Come on, Sky Spirits! I know now that those silly chimps just tricked-and-no-treated me when that eclipse came, but all those nice things I did still have to be counting for something, right? Right? Or is the karma just for that Earl guy on TV?" He then looked down into the water and began to cry.

"Julien," Emmeline said as she got up and placed a flipper on his back, "we both knew this day would come. I was never supposed to stay here forever."

"I know, but ..." He then turned around and slipped his arms underneath Emmeline's flippers and hugged her tightly. "But _je t'aime_."

The other penguins didn't even have to speak French to know what Julien had said. "I love you, too," Emmeline said as she wrapped her flippers around his back. She let go for a moment to dry her own eyes with a flipper before holding onto him again. "You changed my life. I can never thank you enough for that."

Skipper turned to Rico and sighed. "Give me a stick of dynamite, Rico," he whispered. "Once this is over, I'm destroying the mission files. I don't want this one on our records. By succeeding, we've failed." Rico then hacked up the requested explosive.

"I guess we should have gone with Hoboken after all," Private said. "It would have been rough on her, but at least Emmeline would still be here."

"We had no way of knowing," Kowalski added.

"Knowing what?" Julien turned around and asked through a sob.

Skipper slapped himself across the face. "We did it, Ring-tail. We're the reason Emmeline is leaving."

Julien's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Back when she was her old self," Skipper continued. "We called Paris to let her old zoo know where she was. I'm sorry."

"How could you?" Julien shouted. "Emmeline has done the changing! She even made everyone crème brûlée to make up for being rude to them!"

"I know," Skipper replied. "And it was delicious. But Emmeline's departure was already irreversible by then, I'm afraid."

"Don't be mad at your friends, Julien," Emmeline said. "I deserved it. And even if I'm leaving now because of them, someone would have found me eventually."

Julien sighed. "Well, if you really are to be going, I want you to be having something," he said. He then took off his crown and held it out in front of Emmeline. "You're the closest thing to a queen that I've ever had or ever will be having again." He then placed the crown on Emmeline's head and adjusted it. "How does it fit?"

"It fits great," she said as she began to take it off, "but I can't take your crown, Julien."

"No, it's OK! I have a spare! I had Maurice make it for me after my old spare crown became my regular one."

Emmeline smiled and then placed the crown back on her head. "_Merci_," she said. She then stared into Julien's eyes for a moment before standing on her toes to elevate herself a little. "And if I really am to go," she said as she moved her face up close to Julien's, "I want you to have something, too." She then positioned her beak to give Julien a kiss, but the two were suddenly interrupted before any contact could be made.

"Ring-tail, hide!" Skipper called out. "Alice is coming!"

Julien thought for a split-second about staying right there with Emmeline anyway, but knew that being caught outside his habitat could lead to trouble for both the penguins and himself. He had no choice but to make a quick jump down the hatch into the penguins' HQ.

"Cute and cuddly, boys and Emmeline," Skipper said as Alice approached the gate. "Cute and cuddly." The five then stood together smiling and waving as Alice entered into the enclosure.

Once she had accessed the cement platform, the zookeeper walked in front of the line of penguins and looked at each one carefully. Although she didn't care personally if she sent the wrong penguin to France, someone else might, and she didn't want to risk her employment on it even though she hated her job. Fortunately for her, Emmeline's feather pattern was a little different than the boys', so she was easy enough for even Alice to identify.

"Come on, birdie, time to go home," Alice said as she picked Emmeline up. She then stared at the crown on the penguin's head for a moment before taking it off and casually tossing it onto the platform before carrying Emmeline away.

"_Au revoir_, Emmeline," Private said as he and the others waved goodbye to her.

"_Au revoir_," she replied, choking back tears. "Goodbye, my friends. Goodbye, my love."

* * *

><p><strong>Translations:<strong> _je t'aime_ (I love you) | _Merci_ (thank you) | _Au revoir_ (Goodbye)


	9. Through the Wires

"Great news, your majesty," Maurice said as he returned to the lemur habitat and walked up to Julien. "Mort and I just found another iPod in the zoo's lost and found. You want to find out what's on it?"

"I told you before, Maurice, I don't want to be listening to any more music," the king replied. "Every song just reminds me of Emmeline. Now go take that music pod thingy back to the lost and found and lose it."

Maurice nodded. "Very well, your majesty."

It was just shy of three weeks since Emmeline had been taken back to France, and Julien was still just as depressed over it as he had been the day she left. No one had been able to cheer him up any, and Maurice's latest attempt, like the countless ones before it, proved predictably futile.

Meanwhile, over at the penguins' HQ, Private stood looking through the periscope as Skipper and Rico worked to untangle Kowalski from a 30-foot extension cord that he had managed to wrap himself up in. "So, Private," Skipper turned to him for a moment and said, "anything new with our glum chum over there?"

"Still as glum as ever," Private reported.

"Well, maybe not for much longer," Skipper replied. He then turned back to Kowalski, who had seen better days himself. "Hey, Private, you better come give us a hand with this before Kowalski turns blue." Private then stopped looking at Julien through the periscope and began to assist his teammates in freeing the entangled scientist.

Once Kowalski was free, he resumed working to untangle the rest of the extension cord from the twisted pile it was in. After several minutes, he succeeded. He then plugged the cord into an electrical outlet a few feet away. "Anything?" he called back to the other three penguins. "If my calculations are correct, we should now be up and running."

"Nothing over here," Skipper reported from across the room. "I guess your calculations were wrong." He then looked to Private and whispered, "No real surprise there, huh?"

"Actually, Skipper," Private said as he reached for the power button on the device Kowalski had been working on and pushed it, "Kowalski's calculations _were_ right. The power was just turned off."

"Apology accepted," Kowalski said as he smiled and dusted off his flippers.

"But I didn't—" Skipper began.

"Like I said, apology accepted." Kowalski then waddled over to join the others as the goal he had been working toward suddenly came into focus.

"Excellent," Skipper said. "Now let's get Ring-tail over here."

— § —

Julien sighed as the penguins waddled up to his throne. "Why have you come to interrupt my royal moping? I thought I told Maurice not to be sending out any invitations to my pity party."

"Ring-tail, we're here to turn that frown of yours upside down," Skipper said. The four penguins then smiled widely to emphasize the point.

"Impossible," Julien replied. "Unless, of course, you plan to tie me up and hang me by my feet." He then paused in thought for a moment. "Eh, you don't plan to be doing that, do you?"

Skipper chuckled. "Not today."

"We've got a surprise waiting for you at our HQ," Kowalski said.

"And I'll bet a month's worth of Winkies that it'll cheer you right up!" Private added.

"Eh, pass," Julien replied. "There's only one thing that could give me the cheering up, and I'll never see her again."

Skipper then turned to face his men and sighed. "Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way. On my mark, gentlemen. Three, two, one—grab him!"

The four then jumped onto Julien's throne and forcibly carried the lemur down from it. He struggled to break their hold on him, but the penguins held firm. "Let go of your depressed king at once!" he demanded.

"No can do, Ring-tail," Skipper replied as he and the others began to carry Julien out of the habitat. "We know what's best for you. Now you just sit back and relax and we'll be at the HQ before you know it."

After carrying Julien kicking and screaming into their HQ, the penguins set him down on his feet. Skipper then pointed at an LCD computer monitor that had been set up against the wall.

"Emmeline!" Julien exclaimed. He then ran up to the monitor and kneeled down in front of it.

"_Bonjour, mon amour_," Emmeline said as she smiled.

"Emmeline!" Julien said again as he looked at her on the screen. He then turned to the penguins, who were now standing behind him. "But how is this even being possible?"

Skipper smiled as he patted Julien on the shoulder. "We've got connections, Ring-tail. All it took was a little assistance from our brothers in the Penguin French Foreign Legion over in Versailles."

"And my knowledge of fiber optics," Kowalski added.

"Which probably means that you'll have a good 12 minutes to talk with Emmeline before the connection is lost," Skipper continued. "Use them wisely."

Kowalski just glared at Skipper.

"Or, you know, things could turn out great," Skipper said.

"I've missed you, Julien," Emmeline continued. "I've not danced a single step since we were together."

Julien reached out and gently touched Emmeline's image on the screen. "And neither have I, _ma chérie_." He then leaned in to kiss her, but stopped before he could make contact with the monitor when he heard Skipper speak.

"Boys, let's give these two a little privacy," he said as he gestured with a flipper. "Roll out, men." Kowalski, Rico, and Private then waddled over to the ladder and exited the HQ.

As Skipper placed a foot on the bottommost rung to follow his men out, he suddenly placed it back down on the floor before turning around to face Julien again. "Hey, Ring-tail," he said, "I know this arrangement is no substitute for having Emmeline by your side. I hope that someday I can help make your long-distance relationship a little less long-distance. Don't give up hope. The future has yet to be written."

"Thank you, Skipper," Julien replied. Skipper then began to head up the ladder again when Julien spoke once more. "As I wait for the future to be writing itself, however, might I be asking you for just one quick favor?"

Skipper turned back around and nodded.

Julien smiled. "Go find Maurice and tell him that Emmeline and I would love to be finding out what's on that music pod thingy together."

Skipper saluted the lemur. "No problem, _mon ami_," he said, and then left the HQ.

* * *

><p>And so ends the story of this unlikely couple and my role in telling it. I leave the unwritten futures of Julien and Emmeline to your imagination—and to mine.<p>

Overall, I enjoyed coming up with the specific material to carry this story from its second chapter onward, all the while keeping in mind jackandjill2's idea that Emmeline would be a character that would have a relationship of sorts with Julien before returning to France. Hopefully the material I came up with worked well to advance and fully tell this story.

In keeping with tradition, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the 12 reviewers who together submitted a total of 35 reviews on _La Mademoiselle_ so far: **hardrocker21**, **GwiñverArRouz**, **GoTeamSkipper**, **Skipper19**, **Spotlight92**, **Peach Italian Ice**, **InternetGirl123**, **The Dark Angel's Muse**, **Historian1912**, **Toon92**, **Kukipye**, and **Little Christian**. A very special thanks also to GwiñverArRouz for submitting numerous French language corrections throughout my publication period, all of which have now been edited into the prose. Being able to include authentic French is something I had not expected to be able to do on this project; your time and effort to help make this story all it can be has truly been appreciated. Last, but certainly not least, thanks once again to jackandjill2, without whom this unique project could never have been possible. If you enjoyed her first chapter, allow me to recommend taking a look at her own entertaining _Penguins of Madagascar_ stories.

Until next time,

—_GrandVieuxManchot_ (that is, GrandOldPenguin in French)  
>Wednesday, April 11, 2012<br>4:23 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time

**Translations:** _Bonjour, mon amour_ (Hello, my love) | _ma chérie_ (my darling) | _mon ami_ (my friend)


End file.
